I was a USC Jewish World Watch intern for the spring semester and there were several very memorable & meaningful events I was able to both participate in and help plan from January to May.
The Lemkin Summit
One really impactful event was the Lemkin Summit held in Washington DC during the last week of February. My co-USC intern Jenna and I flew from sunny California to the snow-filled winter of DC, and had an incredible time at this three day conference. On the first two days we heard from numerous politicians and social activists who are all involved in anti-genocide efforts in their own way. It was really eye-opening to see how this global issue was being addressed from a variety of perspectives, from international women organizations who work with women internationally (and specifically with women from Darfur and the DRC) to empower them, academic scholars of women’s rights and genocide (we heard presentations from several university heads and professors), and politicians (we had the opportunity to have a Skype call with Samantha Powers, the US Ambassador to the UN, which was amazing!). It was also great to meet and bond with the other high school and college interns there, to hear about the types of events they were putting on, and how they were reaching out to their specific student body.
I think the most rewarding and motivating part of the conference was on the last day however, when we had the opportunity to meet with multiple California congressman and one of Senator Barbara Boxer’s staff members to talk with them about several anti-genocide “points of action” we wanted them to be aware of and support during congressional committee meetings. It’s not every day that you’re able to walk through the halls of Congress and see the plaques of all the congressmen throughout the US lined up on the walls, and having the opportunity to directly meet and talk with these representatives was really an amazing experience, and really allowed us to see that our efforts, even on a relatively small high school or college level, could have a wider impact on a national level.
Yom Ha’Shoah Memorial Service & the Walk to End Genocide
After participating in the Lemkin Summit Conference, Jenna and I returned to USC feeling inspired and motivated to put what we had gained and learned at this conference onto our college campus. We specifically began preparing for events during Genocide Awareness Month, in April. The day or so after we returned home from the conference we met with one of our advisors at Hillel to talk and brainstorm about events we wanted to plan for the remainder of the semester. We decided that I would be in charge of planning a Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) event in mid-April (before the Walk to End Genocide), and Jenna and I would work together on our Walk to End Genocide team recruitment (creating a Facebook event, and reaching out to USC students through various networks like Hillel and other organizations we were each part of).
During my JWW internship last year we also held a Yom Ha’Shoah ceremony and from last year’s ceremony I still had a point of contact with Dr. Henri Slucki, a Holocaust child survivor who currently works in the psychiatry department at USC Keck Medical School, and is also the leader of the Los Angeles Child Survivors group. I reached out to him to let him know that we wanted to hold another Yom Ha’Shoah memorial event like last year, and if he could brainstorm together on some potential panel members. He has a lot of points of contact within the Los Angeles Jewish community so with his help, we were able to create a really amazing panel consisting of himself, Holocaust survivor Harry Davids, the Executive Director of the Sholem Community Organization Hershl Hartman, and Jordanna Gessler and Caitlin Kress, the co-chairs of the LA Holocaust Museum’s Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors program. We held the event at USC Hillel on the eve of Yom Ha’Shoah, and it was a really meaningful and moving event. One of Hillel’s rabbinic interns sang several prayers and hymns specific to Holocaust remembrance, and then each panel speaker gave their presentation, with Dr. Slucki moderating. Harry Davids shared his personal story of survival, Jordanna and Caitlin talked about what their LAMOTH program entails and specifically how their personal contact with Holocaust survivors in their family inspired them to create the program, and Hershl Hartman discussed the topic of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.
Our panel of speakers for the Yom Ha’Shoah Event (from left to right): Hershl Hartman, Dr. Henri Slucki, Jordanna Gessler, Caitlin Kress, and Harry Davids.
Walk to End Genocide
The last event I put on with Jenna during the spring semester was creating a team for the LA Walk to End Genocide, held in late April at Pan Pacific Park. I first participated in the Walk to End Genocide when I was in Hebrew High School at Pierce College, and was taking a class called Jewish Social Justice. We had taken a service, leadership development trip earlier that February to Washington DC called Panim El Panim, and creating a team for the Walk through our class really allowed me to see social justice in action, and inspired me to continue my involvement with Jewish World Watch throughout high school and into college. I’m so grateful I was able to continue being involved with this organization into college at USC, and it’s been so meaningful to bring together my fellow Trojans for this Walk for the past two years, and get other students from USC aware of and more involved in this important cause.
Participating at the Lemkin Summit in February allowed me to see the anti-genocide efforts and changes that are happening at a larger, more nation-wide level and made me especially motivated and excited to bring back that positive energy & sense of activism to USC, specifically through getting as many fellow students together to form a USC team. Many of the members of our team (which ended up having around 15 students including Jenna and I) had never heard of the Jewish World Watch before but were interested in social activism in general, so I was really glad they were able to participate in this really special community event. Seeing so many community members come together for this event (and especially seeing how much the Walk has grown in size since my first time participating in the Walk during high school) was really inspirational, and was a really positive way to close out a very successful semester!
